"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٨‎٥] (١٧٨٢/٢٢٨)

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Terrible disorders followed the death of Nadir Shah, and in these Anarchy, and
hot only his descendants, but also the Afghans, the Qajars, the Bakh-
tiyaris and a rising individual named Karim Khan, played a part. Karim
Khan was a Kurd and belonged to a family, known as Zand, of an
obscure shepheid tiibe, Uie first to succeed T^adir Shah was his nephew
Ali, who assumed the name of Adil Shah and signalised his accession
by putting to death 13 sons and grandsons of Nadir, sparing however
Shah Rukh, a son of Riza Quli Khan. ""Adil Shah was soon over
thrown and blinded by his brother Ibrahim, who was himself almost
immediately assassinated^ and after him ^Adil Shah too was slain. Shah
Rukh, whose mother was a daughter of the Safavi monarch Shah Husain,
ntxt ascended the throne, but he was quickly seized and deprived of sight
b} a usurper named Saiyid Muhammad or Sulaiman, who in his turn was
put to death in 1750; and Shah Rukh was then restored, but only to be
once more deposed and imprisoned.
About this time the power of an Afghan, Ahmad Shah, Abdali, who
had possessed himself of Qandahar and who before long made himself
master of Mashhad also, began to be felt in Persia; and simultaneously a
movement took place in the south-west of that country, where ^Ali
Mardan Khan, chief of the Bakhtiyaris, and Karim Khan, Zand,
combined to raise a Safavi to the throne in the person of Shah Isma'il,
sou of a sister of the late Shah Husain. Ahmad Shah, Abdali, captured
Shiraz in 1750 ,* but, being opposed by the Qajars of Mazandaran in the
north, he did not attempt to make good his conquests in Persia, and, after
placing the blind Shah Rukh in possession of Khurasan with Mashhad
as his capital, he again retired to Afghanistan.
In 1752-53 the whole country was a prey to anarchy; its subjuga
tion by Ahmad Shah, Abdali, was momentarily expected; and gangs of
Afghans and lawless Persians appeared in the neighbourhood of Bandar
; Abbas. A split occurred between 'Ali Mardan Khan and Karim Khan;
the former was assassinated; and Karim Khan obtained undivided
control of the puppet Shah, Isma/il, in whose name he governed Shiraz
with the title of Vakil.
After this Azad or Asad Khan, an Afghan who had seized Azarbaijan,
defeated Karim Khan in the field; and in 1758 this adventurer
obtained Isfahan, of which in 1755 he still held possession. Continuing
his operations he obliged Karim Khan in 1756 to abandon even Shiraz
and to take refuge in the mountains of Fars; but not long afterwards the
Vakil engaged him successfully at the defile of Kumarij, between Shiraz
and the coast, and recovered Shiraz. In 1758 Azad Khan was living at
rise of Karim
Khan, 1747-
63.